Love And Death
by Zack Samurai
Summary: Temari and Shikamaru fall in love after a tramatizing event occurs only to result in more problems later on. i suck at summarys. ShikaXTema fic. i promise it will get better later on. Please Review and no flames. Second chapter Posted
1. Reunion And Kidnapping

**_Disclaimer: No i don't own naruto or any of his friends. Wished I did, but i don't._**

**_Italics: text written in italics means thoughts._**

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Hey everyone, this is Zack Samurai. This is my first Naruto Fanfic so sry if the character's are a little out of charater._**

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_**Chapter 1: Reunion And Kidnapping**_

"Hey Shikamaru, do you want to go and train today?" Chouji asked his lazy friend who was lying on his back on the ground just cloud gazing. "Since you became a Chuunin you haven't had the time to train with us anymore." He urged his skinny friend with the green vest over his shirt.

"Alright Chouji, lets go and train, we'll train in the woods near Konoha where not many ANBU travel to so we wont be interrupted." _'Man, what ever happened to the days where I was able to watch the clouds?' _Shikamaru answers as he gets up from watching the clouds float across the sky. It has been two years since Naruto left Konoha to go and train with Jiraiya, the perverted frog hermit. Without Naruto here in Konoha the village seemed quiet without his constant yelling. "Lets just get permission to leave Konoha from the Hokage first. Wait here." He leaves Chouji there and returns about a half hour later and the two both exit the village via the gates and begin training. A couple of hours later Gaara and his brother Kankuro ran through the gates of Konoha village only to be stopped by the guards of the gates.

"Out of our way, we need the Hokage's help!" Kankuro pleaded with the guards as he still tries to break through them. Gaara uses his sand to move the guards out of the way without hurting them while Kankuro runs to the Hokage's office. About a half hour later Kankuro is seen running towards Gaara with the new Hokage, Tsunade, running along side of him along with Shikamaru's father, Ino's father and Chouji's father.

"About time you got here, your guards are just sleeping over there," Gaara points over to his left where the guards are found sleeping, no doubt put that way by Gaara. "Me and Temari and Kankuro were heading here when we were ambushed by sound ninjas, they succeeded in separating us from each other but I found Kankuro and we decided to see if we could get some help from you in order to find our sister." Gaara tells Tsunade about why they are here in their village. Back with Shikamaru and Chouji who are busy training in the woods.

"Hey Chouji, I am getting bored. How about we go back?" Shikamaru asks but before Chouji gets the chance to answer the body of a dead sound ninja falls in front of the two and Temari floats down, in her usual ninja outfit of a dark dress, in between the two on her fan.

"Hey you two, long time no see. Watch out, there are about twenty more sound ninja after me." Shikamaru and Chouji both get ready for combat while Temari jumps off of her fan to land next to Shikamaru and gets ready to fight.

"Hey Chouji, go to the village and get some help. I'll hold them as long as I can." Shikamaru says as he performs the necessary seals for his Kage Mane no jutsu. Chouji runs in the direction of the village.

"I would watch it though, these sound ninja are Jounin level. They were able to split up me and my brothers, it seems that they are after me." she gets her large fan from her back and gets ready to use it. A group of twenty sound ninja jump out of the trees and they start to attack the two. After about a half hour of fighting them Shikamaru and Temari finished off nineteen sound ninja while the last one runs off, leaving his fallen comrades. Shikamaru only has a few cuts and bruises while Temari has three kunai in her upper left leg and two in her upper right leg. "Um it looks like they are all gone." Temari says as puts her giant fan back on her back. She starts to pull out the kunai's from her upper legs but Shikamaru stops her and he pulls out some medical supplies from the pouches on his Chuunin vest. He starts to help her with her legs but she slaps his hands when his hands get too close.

"What? I'm just trying to help you with those wounds. How troublesome you women are." Shikamaru says as she just takes the supplies from him and continues to apply field medics to her injuries.

"Well sorry, I really don't allow guys to touch my legs. No matter what the condition is." She just glares at Shikamaru with killer intent coming from her eyes. A few minutes later she finishes patching up her legs.

"Finally! … Can you even walk with those injuries?" Shikamaru asks as he puts the remaining supplies back into his vest. Temari tries to get up but she falls back to the ground, the kunai's must have done some major damage to the muscles in her legs. Temari blushes slightly but tries to hide it by looking down at the ground. Shikamaru doesn't notice her blush. "Well?"

"Well what! No I can't walk… so why don't you just leave me here? I never asked you for your help!" Temari yells at him. Mostly trying to hide her blush.

"Eh? Why do you have to be so loud troublesome woman? It looks like you can't walk so I guess I'm going to have to carry you, just don't yell at me woman for helping…" Shikamaru says as hetakes his finger out of his ear andkneels down, his back facing her, so she can climb on. He was trying to get her to climb on his back so he could carry her on his back. _'This day couldn't get more troublesome; man I wish I was a cloud. They never have to put up with this shit.'_ She just looks at him for a second.

"Um, what are you doing?" She asks as she begins to wonder herself if it is a good idea to even let him carry her. He turns his head to face her.

"Just hurry up, we Konoha ninja don't leave allies behind." He says as he quickly turns his head away so she wouldn't see a blush creeping up on his face. _'God this woman is so bothersome, but I can't leave her here.' _he thinks.

"Alright, but don't get any ideas about this. I won't hesitate to kill you." Temari says as she slowly and painfully climbs onto his back. He gets up into a standing position and puts his arms where they needed to be in order to carry her, and unfortunately for him, he accidentally touched her butt with one of his hands which made her blush deeply and smack him in the back of the head. "I said nothing funny!" She yells while still blushing, clearly angry.

"Hey, it's n not like I meant to do it Temari! It was an accident!" He yells as a large bump forms on the back of his head where she hit him. She wraps her arms around his neck in order to help support her from falling off. He just walks it off as he walks back to the village, thinking how annoying this day was becoming. "So, care to explain why you have sound ninja coming after you?" He asks as he continues walking on the ground.

"From what I got from one of their ninja's that Gaara caught and threatened, they plan to use me in their plans in order to get to Gaara." She explains a little bit as she pauses in order to take a breath of air. "What we got from the sound ninja is that they have a little time left in order to capture me and that Orochimaru wants me captured at all cost."

"How does he plan to use you in order to get to your brother?" Shikamaru asks as he walks around a large tree and stops. He looks around the area to spot any hidden traps and continues on walking when he doesn't find any.

"Well he is planning another invasion of Konoha and plans to use me against my brothers by saying if Suna helps her allies Gaara would be able to find my dead body in the desert near Suna." Temari takes a deep breath and continues talking. "Also, when we found the sound ninja that Gaara tortured we found him at the borders of our village. We took ten sand ninjas with us and planed to inform your Hokage because they were able to block all messages so we decided to report this to your Hokage directly. Unfortunately, on our way here we were ambushed multiple times, losing the ten ninjas with us. They attacked us recklessly without that much strategy in their plans. I guess they are running out of time to capture me." She chuckles at her last sentence.

"So sound is planning another invasion. And they plan to use you in order to stop our allies from coming to our aid." He said to himself rather than to her. _'Damn, I need to report all this to the Hokage as soon as I get back.'_ Shikamaru thinks to himself."By any chance do you know how many ninja he has under his command?"

"The info we got from the sound ninja was that he has at least a thousand." Right after she said that Shikamaru stops in his tracks. "Orochimaru is gathering all the ninja he can, missing ninja and all."

"A thousand! Not even Konoha could stand against that many." _'This is serious, how can we even contend against that many?' _He thinksasa sweat drop rolls down his face.After a few moments of thinking he begins to walk again. "Wouldn't you have run into our ANBU on your way here?"

"We did, but always right after we would be ambushed and they were killed."

"I see…" He replies and continues on his way to Konoha while looking out for ambushes and traps.

After about a half hour of walking towards the village they finally reach the main gate only to see both Kankuro and Gaara. Along with them are Shikamaru's father Shikaku, Ino's father, and Chouji's father and Chouji himself. Shikamaru's father just smirks at his son's predicament. Kankuro's mouth hangs agape while Gaara gives Shikamaru a small death glare. Shikamaru notices the glare and sighs while muttering his favorite saying, "How Troublesome". Without even saying anything Shikamaru carries Temari to the hospital where the medical ninjas there heal her injuries. They order her to stay the night, just in case there are any other injuries. They put her in one of the many rooms where she and Shikamaru having a conversation.

"Hey crybaby, can I ask you a favor? You still owe me from the time I saved you from that Tayuya woman." Temari asks as she pulls the covers up to her waist. Shikamaru just sighs.

"What is it this time troublesome woman?" He asks, slightly annoyed that she reminded him about the time she saved him.

"Can you stay here with me tonight? Please?" She asks what she wanted with a little hint of plea in her voice. Shikamaru just sighs, not even answering. He just sits in the seat that's to the left side of the bed.

"Why me and not your brothers?" Shikamaru asks as he looks at her.

"I know Kankuro would defiantly take the chance to bug me about me getting injured and Gaara is probably busy giving a detailed report to your Hokage."

"Alright, I'll stay." _'So much for cloud watching today. But why did I stay? Normally I would have refused if she asked me. I need to think about this later on'_

"Thanks crybaby." Temari says with a hint of humor in her voice. She then closes her eyes and falls asleep. Shikamaru soon follows her example and closes his eyes too after he takes off his Chuunin vest off and puts it down in the seat next to him. In the middle of the night the one sound ninja that escaped snuck into the village. He hid in the shadows and stealthily made his way to the hospital where he figured she is because of her injuries. He makes his way inside the hospital and begins searching for her in the rooms. After about a half hour of searching and five times almost being caught by the nurses working that night, he finds Temari's room. Care full not to make any sounds he grabs the handle to the door and slowly opens the door. While he is opening it he pulls out three Senbon needles, with his right hand, from his kunai pouch on his leg and holds them between his fingers. He brings his hand that has the Senbon needled to his right side. He sees Shikamaru sleeping in the chair next to her bed and Temari sleeping in her bed. Shikamaru quickly wakes up and goes for his kunai in his kunai pouch on his right leg but before he can grab it the sound ninja throws the three needles at him. One hitting him in his right shoulder, another in his left shoulder, the last hits him in his neck just a few millimeters from a vital spot. _'Shit…I failed to protect her…' _Shikamaru thinks to himself. Shikamaru then falls into a deep slumber, for you see… the needles were dipped in sleeping poison. Temari awakens by the sound of Shikamaru's body hitting the floor. She sees the sound ninja and she goes for her fan which is next to the bed, in between Shikamaru's seat and the bed, but before she even gets one finger on it the sound ninja throws more Senbon needles that land on her arms and her left side. _'Shit, I got hit by ten of those needles… I hope to god Shikamaru isn't dead…I couldn't bear the responsibility of costing him his life when I asked him to stay… Please don't die Shikamaru…' _She thinks to herself as she too falls unconscious. The sound ninja then walks over to the bed and flings her over his left shoulder and jumps out of the window in the room………………………………...

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When the sun rises a nurse goes into Temari's room to check on her only to find Shikamaru lying on the floor, unconscious. The nurse quickly calls for help while she treats the young man. The Hokage is immediately informed about Temari going missing. The Hokage comes a few minutes later and takes over healing the young boy who was now on the hospital bed that was Temari's. Just as she finishes healing him Gaara and his brother burst into the room, demanding to know where their sister is. Then the whole room burst into yelling between everyone.

"SHUT UP! Hokage, I'm going to assemble a rescue team and go after them. I'm going to need Kiba and Akamaru. Also I'm requesting a medic ninja to be assigned to the squad. Also I request that Neji be assigned too." Shikamaru gets off the bed and puts his Chuunin vest on. Every one in the room are shocked that the teenager and heir to the Nara clan is actually taking action when he is famous for being the laziest ninja in all of Konoha. _'I guess the sound really_

"Alright Shikamaru, you are in command of the squad of Kiba, Neji, and Sakura. You are to move out as soon as possible." Tsunade said. She then turns to face the Kazekage and his brother. "And before you two can even ask, your not going on this mission and that's final!" She says with a glare that made both brothers immediately forget any protest that they were about to make. The two just remained quiet.

"Tell the rest of the squad to meet me at the main gate in a half hour." Shikamaru says with an emotionless face and no emotion in his voice. He then walks out of the room in order to get ready for the mission.

"Let us go with them, the hell with what the Hokage said." Kankuro says to his brother in a whisper only able to be heard by the Kazekage. Kankuro begins to walk out of the room but Gaara bars his way with his arm, stopping him. He looks to his younger brother looking for an answer to his reaction.

"We'll stay here, they can handle this. Look how motivated he is to rescue her. Let him do this himself." Gaara says as he looks at his brother with a glare that told him that if he even tried to question him he wouldn't hesitate to kill him.

"Alright…" The puppet user sighs. _'I hope you aren't hurt Temari, who knows what Gaara would do if he found out that someone harmed you in anyway.' _Kankuro thinks to himself. _'I just hope that lazy ass can get to you before they do something really horrible to you…' _That last thought made him shudder at the possibilities.

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**_Alright, first chapter. What did you guys think? Please Review, and no flames. Constructive critisism welcomed though._**


	2. The Rescue

**Hey Ladies and gentlemen, this is Zack Samurai.I am so sorry that it took me almost two months to update. You see,I am writing this story on my laptop and about five days after I posted this story somehow i lost my internet connection permanently. I was pissed. Since then I have been working on it... But i haven't gotten it working yet. so i trasfered my story onto my psp and sent it to my dad's computer. From now on, I'm going to see if i can update every two weeks.**

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**Also I would like to thank my first reviewer, Das Leech. How about I answer some reviews? I only reply to signed reviews. gomen!**

**Das Leech: Thank you for giving me some ideas and criticism. Hope you like the next chapter.**

**Ardenilia: Thanks for saying my fic is pretty good for a first fic. Hope to continue to have your support!**

**DancingPickle101: Here is the update you wanted! Now be a good Dancing Pickle! lol. **

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"Speaking"- means someone is talking 

_'Thoughts'- _means someone is thinking to themselves

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_**C**__**hapter 2: The Rescue**_

Two hours later Neji, Shikamaru, Kiba, and his dog, and Sakura are at the front gate with the Hokage. The rescue group made sure that they were properly equipped with everything that they would need for the mission. The Hokage then steps up to the group in order to give them some insight of the direction where the sound ninja took Temari.

"Reports indicate that the sound ninja was last seen heading north, towards the woods. It looks like he is going to probably going to do something horrible after he gets a good distance away from the village. You guys might want to hurry." Tsunade informs while looking out towards the direction of where the sound ninja took Temari. Shikamaru then takes charge of the squad and begins the formation.

"Alright. Kiba, you and Akamaru are up in front. You're able to smell out the enemy quicker than anyone else. Next in line will be me. I'll be able to give out orders judging on what happens accordingly. Then Sakura will be next in line. She will be able to provide immediate medical help to the others in the squad. Also so that you will be guarded by Neji and I. Finally, Neji. You will take up the rear. Your Kekkei Genkai allows to see all around you so your able to see if an enemy is behind us or anywhere around us." Shikamaru forms the squad rather quickly but his expression remains expressionless. Everyone in the squad notices how he is acting different then he normally does. Everyone just shrugs off the observing their leader and they get ready to move out. "Alright, lets go!" He orders and everyone quickly gets in formation and they go through the gates and head north. Unfortunately, the whole group knows that if this mission fails it would put a lot of strain on the treaties between Konoha and Suna, not to mention that sound will have the sister of the Kazekage hostage

Shikamaru's squad had been leaping from tree to tree for almost two hours when Kiba's dog, Akamaru (who is running in front of him. Over the two years Akamaru has grown way too large to be inside Kiba's coat.), catches the smell of blood not to far from their location. They all quicken there pace, being careful and looking out for any traps, and they head to the location that Kiba leads them to. They get to the location where the smell of blood came from in about a half hour. Akamaru gets out of Kiba's coat and smells the little bit of blood that was on the forest floor. After about a few moments, which seemed like an eternity to Shikamaru, Akamaru barks to his owner.

"Akamaru says that the blood belongs to Temari and it's a few hours old." Kiba tells the group as he notices the worried look on Shikamaru's face. '_That's weird. He looks really worried over a girl he thinks is too troublesome and doesn't want anything to do with her… I should bug him about it after this mission is completed.'_ Akamaru then barks again and Kiba listens to his dog. Everyone looks at him and his dog, waiting to find out what Akamaru said. "Akamaru says that he smells Temari about five minutes away from us… lets hope were not too late." He looks over to the rest of the squad and only notices his leader's face paling.

"Alright, Kiba lead the way and lets hurry." Shikamaru tries to sound serious but at the same time sounds like he is worried. _'Damn it! They already got out of our territory in half a day…'_ Shikamaru thinks to himself as he tries to regain his composure. The group soon finds both the kidnapper and Temari in a clearing but along with twenty other sound ninjas. Shikamaru's group stays hidden in the woods. Tied to a tree, unconscious, is Temari. Her clothing is a little torn at her chest but fortunately still covering. On both of her sides she has a sound ninja guarding her. Around a fire are sixteen more ninjas just sitting around resting. There are another two ninjas setting up tents for resting even though it's a little past midday. _'I guess their plan is to rest during the day and travel under the cover of night…however, something about this situation seems off. They're not even guarded from ambushes.'_ He begins to look around the area while staying hidden in the shadows. He notices the man who attacked him and kidnapped Temari walk into the woods. _'That's strange. Where is he going?'_ He gives a hand signal to his teammates and they get ready to attack. Shikamaru lets out his shadow, using the shadow from the trees to increase his shadow's size, and quickly captures all the ninja around the campfire. The ninjas setting up the tents decide to quickly run off to get into the woods, leaving their comrades. Sakura stays next to Shikamaru as Kiba moves in and both him and Akamaru, after they perform the Jinju Konbi Henge, perform a dual Gatsuuga. Kiba hitting one of the ninja's while Akamaru hits the other, killing the two ninjas. The two ninjas guarding Temari give a glare of disgust to their comrades caught in the Kage Mane no Jutsu. Then they go to attack Kiba and Akamaru while they have their backs turned. The two sound ninja grab a kunai from their kunai pouch and prepare to stab Kiba in the back as soon as they got close. One of the two smirks when they get within three feet of Kiba and Akamaru.

"You know, it's quite cowardly to attack someone from behind." Neji said as he appears in front of the two sound ninjas, his Byakuugan activated, and uses his Jyuuken and hits them square in the chest, killing them instantly by ripping the heart muscles. "Ah, I see… clever."

"What's clever?" Kiba wonders out loud as he turns around and attacks the sound trapped by Shikamaru using a Gatsuuga, which Akamaru follows.

"I'll explain in a minute. KAI" Neji yells as he forms the tiger seal and the whole area flickers for a few seconds and then the whole camp disappears. Kiba comes close to killing one when he flies through the illusion of one, hitting the ground. Kiba then gets up and dusts himself off.

"If you knew that this whole area was in a genjutsu then why didn't you say something before we attacked?" Kiba asked, his left eye twitching, visibly annoyed.

"I didn't know that this whole area was under a powerful genjutsu until I activated my Byakuugan which I activated only moments ago when I attacked the two coming up behind you and Akamaru. But this genjutsu was way to strong to be cast by anyone under Jounin level. This one rivals that of your sensei Kiba." Neji finishes speaking to Kiba who's left eye continues to twitch in annoyance. Sakura runs from next to Shikamaru towards Temari in order to see if she is in need of any emergency medical attention. "Sakura, don't bother. That's not Temari, its just another genjutsu." The Byakuugan wielder informs Sakura as Shikamaru's begins to look like a worried lover. Before the group can plan their next action they hear a woman's scream in the woods near them. The shadow wielder pales but quickly recovers as he jumps into the trees and heads toward the scream, his team following behind him. After about thirty seconds jumping from tree to tree the group makes it to a clearing to find the same sound ninja that attacked Shikamaru while he was in the hospital, the same one that kidnapped Temari, and now the same one who was well on his way to begin raping Temari. The sound ninja had her on her back and he as her hands above her head held by his left hand while his right hand begins ripping her dress, exposing her bra. She tries to kick the man on top of her but unfortunately the sound Nin had already tied wire around her legs. The ends of the ropes were tied to a few kunais that seemed to be made from the earth and the ropes them selves were made from earth, probably an earth jutsu. Shikamaru tries desperately to think up a plan but comes up with nothing, unable to think of anything because of what is happening to Temari.

"I have to help her but I can't just run in there without a plan… that could get us all killed." The shadow wielder thinks out loud but not too loud so the others can hear. Not being able to think of a plan almost makes Shikamaru seem like someone else. He's Shikamaru, he's is always able to think up a plan in any situations. But he gives up thinking of a plan when he hears a loud slap. He looks over at her to notice that she bit the man's right hand when he got to close to her mouth and as a result she got back handed quite hard. The left side of her face has a handprint of the back of his hand. _'Oh god! Please don't let me get raped here. I can't break free from his grasp! Someone please help me! Please! Shikamaru HELP!'_ Temari silently begs as a few tears form in her eyes but then wonders why she mentally called out for the cry baby rather than her brothers or anyone else.. If that wasn't enough torment done to her already, the man then roughly grabs her right breast and roughly squeezes and smirks an evil grin. At this point Shikamaru is beyond boiling mad, he just ensnares the man in his Kage Mane no jutsu and runs directly towards him, his teammates following behind him. After years of mastering his shadow techniques he is finally able to move freely while keeping his victim moving the way Shikamaru wants him to move by using his mind to keep them ensnared. Just when he gets close Shikamaru kicks the man right in his face, knocking the man off her and making him fly back about ten meters. Kiba, Neji, and Sakura attack the sound nin while Shikamaru gets into a kneeling position takes a kunai and slowly begins to breaks the stone rope tied to her legs. After about twenty seconds later he breaks the ropes and helps her up in a sitting position. She takes the ripped part of her dress and tries to cover herself but Shikamaru slowly blushes and takes off his vest and holds it to her, turning his head away when he accidentally sees part of her bra.

"Thanks… thanks for coming for me." She thanks her savior without looking at him, therefore not knowing who it is. Temari takes the vest he offers and puts it on, covering her breasts. She zips up the vest and rubs her still smarting cheek. Shikamaru looks at her and notices that she is looking at the ground with watery eyes. _'What the hell! She's going to start crying?'_ Shikamaru is now in a world of his own. Even him being a genius, and possibly the smartest Chuunin in Konoha, he couldn't think up a way to not have her cry. It just shocked his system that one of the toughest female ninjas he has ever seen, even though he would never tell anyone he thought that, about to break out in tears. He tried to put his left hand on her left shoulder for a small gesture of comfort for her but she quickly moves away from his touch like his touch would burn her.

"Temari? It's just me, Shikamaru." He tries to lightly grab her shoulder again but again she pulls away. Her face is still looking down to the ground with her hair blocking his view of her face. Her hand still covers the cheek that got slapped. Shikamaru hears the sound of one of Kiba's Justus's and tries to grab her shoulder one last time. "TEMARI" He yells at her but not in an angry way but not loud either. This time though he was able to grab one of her shoulders. Temari tries to break out of his grasp but finds herself too weak to do so.

"Please, let me go…" The female Nin weakly begs like a small child rather than a strong Suna ninja. Neji uses his family's fighting style and hits the sound Nin in his chest, right over his heart. The man fell to the ground seemingly dead, still holding onto a kunai in his right hand. Sakura, Kiba, and Neji walk over to their squad leader and Temari. They see the Suna Nin's body slightly shaking. Shikamaru turns his head to face Neji with a small worried look over his usual lazy expression.

"Both you and Kiba move out and survey the surrounding area for traps or ambushes. Also look for the safest route back to the village and report back to me when you are done." Both Neji and Kiba nod before they disappear in a puff of smoke, going to fulfill the orders given to them. _'Why isn't she noticing that it's her allies… her friends from Konoha?'_ Sakura moves to Temari's right side to try and examine her for any physical injuries. Shikamaru turns his attention back to Temari, trying to get her to realize that they came here in order to rescue her, not to harm her. Suddenly an idea came into his head and he immediately tried it, currently at a loss at what else to do in this situation. "Temari…" he softly whispers, her gaze still locked on the ground, her eyes not making eye contact with either of them. "Temari, it's the crybaby, please say something." She immediately snaps her eyes to him right after he finished speaking. His plan worked. He looks at her and gives a small warm smile.

"Shikamaru? It's you… you came to rescue me." She looks at him, tears swelling up in her eyes. She tries her hardest to refrain from breaking out into tears but she fails a few moments after looking up at him. She quickly wraps her arms around his upper body, her arms wrapped around his upper body where her arms went underneath his armpits. With the beginning of her crying, she buries her face into the right side of his neck and cries. Shikamaru, after breaking out of his shocked state that he was thrown into when she started crying, slowly brings his arms up from his sides and wraps them around her. His left hand rest on her lower back while his right hand massages the middle of her back, a small but comforting gesture. They remain in that position for a while, even after Sakura left to help the others with the scouting even though she really left because she felt that she was intruding on a moment between Shikamaru and Temari. Unknown to the Shadow wielder and Wind wielder, they were being watch by three pairs of overly curious friends. After a few minutes of Temari crying, which seemed like hours to Shikamaru, she manages to stop her crying only to manage small sobs every now and then. Shikamaru was one hundred percent sure that the front of his shirt was wet with her tears but he didn't let that bother him, he knew that material dried. He was to wrapped up in calming and comforting Temari that he didn't notice that the sound ninja that Neji "killed" was slowly getting back up to his feet. Unfortunately his curious friends, hidden in the trees, also didn't notice that the ninja was getting back up. The ninja managed to make it to his feet, blood flowing from the sides of his mouth in steady small streams… a sure sign of major internal damage. Temari managed to move her face from the crook of his neck to allow her head to rest on her left side of her face, looking to the right side of his shoulder while in her mind she is grateful that she was saved when she wasn't strong enough to win or get away from that sick ninja who tried to rape her. While she puts her head there she notices the ninja getting up to his feet. The man clutches his chest right over his heart with his left hand while with his right he pulls out ten kunai and holds two between each finger.

"Shikamaru! Look out!" She yells as the Sound nin throws the kunai at them with the intent to kill them. She then pushes Shikamaru out of the way and he falls over onto his back. Temari yelling caught the attention of the three pairs of curious eyes in the trees as one of them, Neji, grabs ten kunais and throws them in the intended path of the other kunais in intent to clash. Nine of the kunai clashed together and canceled out, dropping to the ground while the tenth one that Neji threw missed by a few millimeters… its target is Temari's heart. She tries to use a replacement jutsu but cant concentrate long enough to utilize it. Sakura and Kiba are already out of the woods and running towards Shikamaru and Temari. Neji runs to finish off the sound nin and this time for sure. He stabs the man in the chest with a kunai, killing him instantly. Just as the kunai is one meter away from her she clamps her eyes shut and waits for the pain but when it never came she slowly opens her eyes and what she sees makes her gasps. In front of her is Shikamaru facing her but his head hung down.

"I guess your… not in a… good mental… state… to… mould… chakra…" The lazy Chuunin says between deep breaths but at the end of the sentence he drops to his knees and falls forward… onto to Temari who catches him in her arms. When she brings her arms around to his back she feels something warm and wet and when she brings her hand up so she can see. _'Blood… it's Shikamaru's blood! That ass shielded me'_ At this point she didn't care who saw her crying as she let her tears fall. Sakura reaches the two and immediately begins applying the medical jutsu she knows to the kunai wound in the middle of his back. Kiba looks over Sakura's shoulder to see if their friend is going to be alright. Neji keeps watch, making sure that no other sound nin are on their way by using his Byakuugan.

"Fortunately, the kunai missed his spine but the wound is too close to his heart. We have to get him to the hospital. Tsunade has more medical knowledge than me, she can heal him better than me. I was able to heal the area where the point hit around his heart but that's all I can do. I don't have enough skill to heal a major wound like this. We need to get him to the hospital as fast as we can. ." Sakura reports the situation to Kiba as she uses her jutsu to try to stop the bleeding as much as possible. Temari slows her crying to slow sobs. Kiba takes over as team leader even though Neji is a Jounin, thus a higher rank than Kiba.

"Alright, we'll move as fast as we can. I'll have Akamaru carry him as we all move as fast as we can. Neji, we are leaving for the village. We'll go as fast as we can." Neji turns around and helps Kiba put the unconscious form on Akamaru's back. Sakura helps Temari up who is still shaking. Sakura tells Temari not to worry that Shikamaru will be fine as long as they get him to the hospital in half a day. The sand kunoichi feels somewhat relieved but something else, something that she feels in her heart… guilt. The rescue team and their target, Temari, make their way to Konoha hastily, forgetting anything about formation, hoping not to encounter any enemy nins. Within about four hours they make it to Konoha and immediately rushes an injured and unconscious Shikamaru to the hospital while Sakura went to go get her mentor, Tsunade to help heal him. At the hospital, on the second floor in the waiting room near the stairs, a female nurse walks up to the remaining group and tells them that the wound opened up and he is bleeding immensely.

"At this rate, if Hokage-sama doesn't get here within minuets… the Nara boy won't live. We are trying all we can but the wound is about a few millimeters from his heart. Also another problem is that the tip of the Kunai used to inflict the wound is still imbedded there." the nurse gives a grave expression, "It was a miracle that the tip didn't kill him when you transported him here…" Just then a Medical ninja that was in Shikamaru's room trying to heal him stepped out of Shikamaru's room. While the door is open the group hears the faint beep of a heart monitor. Suddenly the doors of the staircase swing open to reveal Tsunade and Sakura. But just as they walk through they all hear the heart monitor make the flat line sound, meaning that Shikamaru's heart stopped………………………………………….

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_Ohhhhh, cliffhanger!I wonder what will happen?Sorry this took so long to update. Please review and no flames!_

_JA NE!_

_Signed, Zack Samurai,..._


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